Go the extra step: Make sure your vote counts

“About 14,000 Los Angeles County residents who registered by mail to vote will be ineligible to cast ballots Tuesday.” — Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 1980

Iwas one of these voters.

In 1980, I had moved from New York City to Los Angeles, and I needed to register to vote. It was a presidential election that year, Regan vs. Carter. Until the last possible day to register, I was working on a film out of town. Once I was home, I investigated how to register as a new resident of Los Angeles. I had one day left to accomplish this.

I called my local post office, the Studio City branch, and they informed me that if my registration was at the post office by 3 p.m., it would get to the main branch in Van Nuys in time. I didn’t trust this, so I piled into my car and drove the full five miles to Van Nuys. They assured me it would be OK.

Two weeks later, I received in the mail my notice that my registration was not postmarked by midnight, and therefore I was not registered to vote. I was livid. I called the postmaster general of the Van Nuys main post office to complain.

I have no idea if this man was a Republican or Democrat. What he was, was honest. He investigated the situation and reported this back to me: When he left at around 9 p.m., he realized there were so many bags of mail still to process that he ordered the person left in charge to not turn the clock over at midnight until all the mail had an 11:59 postmark. That did not happen. He estimated that approximately 14,000 letters were posted the next day. Most were registrations.

He followed through with a letter from his desk explaining what had happened. I took that letter to the ACLU, and we proceeded to sue the federal government. The ACLU chose to push forward a class action suit, with me being the named defendant. The day before the election, we were in front of a judge. That judge ruled in favor of me but denied the class action, as no other defendant was named. There never was time to find the others who were denied their right to vote. But, after the Los Angeles Times did a front-page story, many came forward with the same tale as mine.

On Election Day, I was ordered to report to Industrial City with my paperwork to vote. An armed guard met me and ushered me inside to a single polling station. I sat with another official and turned over my formal papers from the court. I voted, and the guard ushered me back out. It was surreal.

If I had not decided to go the extra mile to see what had happened, I would not have been able to vote that year. It doesn’t matter that the man I voted for lost; it only matters that I voted.

We cannot depend on there being an honest citizen postmaster general, as in my case, or even workers with the energy to go the extra step to ensure our freedoms. We must make sure the U.S. Postal Service has what it needs to continue to carry on, allowing us to continue with our freedom. My story is just one way that “cheating” and “stealing” an election can happen. If you decide to mail in your vote, mail it in the day you receive the ballot. Or, drop it off at the voting station. We must be vigilant and watchful during these times. It’s time to get ahead of problems coming our way that could impede our right to vote.

Janet Davidson has been a full-time resident of New Mexico since 2003, when she arrived to help create the newly formed New Mexico Film Office. Currently she is writing and is again on the board of New Mexico Women in Film and TheatreSantaFe.com.